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eloriekamSorry if this icon seems a little hyper. It really didn't look that way in Animation Shop. *grumbles*
Shock ran through the country, and was relentlessly chased by anger, which was followed by mistrust, which combined with anger again, and both wrapped themselves around shock in the minds of millions of Americans. There was a fair share of denial, too, and pure anger, and the reactions from certain other countries were so biting as to be rarely discussed.
Then came a sudden odd vindication, though with mistrust still running underneath it; a mistrust of the two parties and their leadership, a mistrust of what people said, and a desire to see someone say things in a manner that made everyone truly believe. It was to become a test of who in the public eye could and would and dared to reach down and speak from their hearts. No few women who had been doing poorly in their races, from the local to federal level, suddenly found themselves with more money or more publicity than they had ever expected to receive. DeMartin of Washington found herself, without warning, not only back in the running for whatever she might have wanted to run for, but also a national symbol.
For a long, long moment then, she hesitated over all the possibilities abruptly open to her, knowing that all the odds and outcomes of this already unique election had changed yet again. A well-placed conversation set her firmly in the direction of a solid win in her district and gave her a link to Ben Anders; younger than Ben or Sam, she could help guarantee that some changes would go through, if all their efforts failed this time.
"She wouldn't have done it," Amy asserted to Donna sometime in the middle of May, as the younger woman looked over at her without really looking, eyes instead watching the memories of shots fired and a red light being run and an unexpected answer given in the midst of an unexpected storm and frail and vulnerable bruises on a friend's body and soul...
"No, not after she heard about Andi," she replied at last, coming back to the present a little bit. "I don't know how much longer we can hide that, though."
"Eight weeks?"
"Too long," Donna dismissed. Amy smiled at her.
"We could use you after the election still, if you want," she offered. The other sighed a little and brushed one hand across her face.
"I don't know... I've loved this, there's no question about that, and in some ways our job just became a lot more transparent. But at the same time... eleven years is a long time to be at the same place, and I'd always planned to do something in the administration if Sam got elected."
"I understand," the older woman agreed softly. "This does grow on you a little, and of course with the situation and with Andi running, we've got things to do for the campaign regardless of what you do for it yourself. I was wondering, though, if you were going to be working with Josh..."
"He could work for me," Donna suggested with a slight laugh, which Amy echoed. "But I think even if I do work with him, it would really be with him, not for, and it's been so long since I've worked for him that I don't think we'd have any trouble that way."
"At least until you disagree."
"Well, there's no helping that, especially since I'm always right." Amy laughed at this, then looked over at her more seriously.
"You know that because of this, almost any candidate who doesn't support total equality could be completely destroyed, not just for this campaign but for others."
"Yeah, I've thought about that." Donna braced one hand against her temple to look at the woman who was, all at once, relentless fighter and boss and friend and ally. "You don't think there'd maybe be some backlash from that?"
"Which party?"
"Amy, I know you keep saying, and I keep saying too, that every two years we get to overthrow the government, but I think the effective leader of the Republican Party is a little past our capabilities."
"And Sam would be mad if we did his work for him," she mused in response, eyes mischievous.
"That too," Donna agreed. "As for Narti... he's got enough problems."
"Terrible economic platform."
"We don't know what he's for."
"Although he does have a decent position on worker's rights."
"But his position on other rights..."
"Yeah, let's not go there."
"It's not that I don't like him, exactly," Donna confessed. "It's that he's the kind of politician I don't like."
"You're far too nice," Amy criticized.
"I thought that was why you keep me employed," she replied with a smirk.
"That and your good looks, because we completely ignore our own platforms."
"How you doing?" Mal asked him, giving his tie another smoothing pat.
Sam smiled wanly. "Terrified."
"You're more ready than I was," Jed Bartlet advised from where he was sitting.
"Yeah, well..." Sam trailed off, momentarily looking younger. "You know, I can't think of a safe response to that."
"Good." The old man pretended to turn his attention back to some Seaborn for America leaflets. "Who came up with this junk, Senator?"
The other's tone was so mock-severe that Sam almost laughed. "Your granddaughter."
"I always knew she'd be trouble some day," came the grumble.
"Speaking of grandkids..." Leo started.
Mallory rolled her eyes. "Please, Dad. You're going to jinx it."
"I was just asking."
"They're going out on stage with us," she confirmed. "You know, assuming there is a stage to go out onto..."
"Go outside, turn around three times, and spit," her husband directed.
"No."
"Fine. I'll just kiss you, then."
"Tell me when it's safe," Leo shot at them.
"This is going to be a really long kiss, in that case," Sam retorted.
Carol stuck her head into the room at that moment. "Sam, Mallory? You ready?"
"No," Sam moaned.
"Okay, I'll have Josh stand in for you, including the speech."
"I'm going."
"Sam," Jed's voice stopped him. "Seriously. This is good stuff. How'd you come up with it?"
"Is he coming, or what?" Josh demanded from the hallway. Carol promptly yanked him into the room. "Oh. Sorry."
"I think, Jed, that since Josh so helpfully stopped by, you should ask him how we came up with that," Sam suggested, a gentle, joyful smile playing at his lips.
"Josh?"
"Yeah. Sir..."
Bartlet actually clucked at him a few times. "Eleven years, Mr. Lyman."
"Sorry." Josh ducked his head and shot the former President an almost boyish look of apology. "You mean, how did we come up with including everyone?"
"Yeah."
"Galileo."
"A bigger theme."
"Yeah."
"So who expanded it this time?"
"We were arguing in a staff meeting a couple of months ago, not too long after the thing came out, and Toby told us we were idiots and to go back to basics." Josh shrugged. "That was it, more or less. He looked over at me and lifted his eyebrows and asked if I remembered when he was always right. And then I realized what he was referring to... that government should be a place where people come together, and where no one gets left behind."
"One of the phrases I was always sorry I never got a chance to speak in a venue large enough to make a difference," Jed noted. Sam turned to Carol.
"Carol, get me Mike or Justin or Will, whomever you can find first."
"Yeah. They're going to love that." She started to pull back into the hallway, but Josh shook his head at her.
"It's already in there."
"What?"
"Toby..."
"Is messing with my speeches?"
"You really mind that much?"
Sam paused. "No. But he's going to have to start asking me."
"Fine. You tell him that."
"Boys," Bartlet admonished gently. They grinned.
"We're going."
"Yeah, we're going to get Sam ready for the thing. Carol, could you do a last-minute check, please?"
"Everyone's still sane except the two of you."
"Smartass."
"I learned from the best," she retorted.
"If we could head in the direction of the thing, that would be nice," Mallory prompted.
"Come on, Leo." Jed wheeled forward. "Maybe if we get moving, they'll come along."
Sam was looking at Carol. She blushed and ducked her head, hair swinging over her face, but he shook his head and stepped forward. "Carol..."
"Sorry."
"Have I ever said thank you?"
"For what?"
"Helping me get this far." He took her face between his hands and studied her. "Do you think I don't know how easy it would have been for you to leave politics and find a job that paid better, with less stress, with no hint at all of any of this?"
"You never know what you can do until you're challenged to do it," she answered. "Let's go, Sam."
He kissed her gently on the forehead and dropped his hands, holding one out to Mallory. "Let's go."
Six Weeks Earlier
"I challenge you to make the choice," Sam declared from where he stood at the front of the room. "I challenge you to be better, to learn more, to listen more, to speak more. I challenge you, the American people, to-" He stopped and shook his head. "Nah. Not gonna work."
"Come on, Sam," Mike begged from her seat in the front row. "We have to have a good speech for this. You can't run this on TV spots and billboards alone."
"The rhythm's wrong."
"Our rhythm is fine," Justin retorted, clearly prickly.
"We're writing for a Bartlet-Seaborn synthesis," Will suddenly noted, looking up. "Sam, it reads like one of your election year speeches for President Bartlet, and you-"
"Wrote for him for a long time," Sam sighed. "Yeah, I know." He took his glasses off and looked around, frustrated. "But Mike, you're right. We've got to have a solid platform speech for this."
"So let us write one," she replied. "You're back tonight?"
"Yeah."
"We'll have one ready for you tonight."
A senatorial brow puckered skeptically. "Uh, right."
"We will," she insisted. "We're betting our political careers on it."
"Yes, you certainly are." Sam stepped away from the mock podium and surveyed them. "I'll be back tonight, I'll come here, I will read the speech. If there's no speech, Toby gets to take care of you."
"It'll be ready," Will assured again.
"Yeah." He tucked his glasses in his pocket and left. Mike immediately turned to Will.
"Speech by committee."
His eyes widened in horror, Will actually backed up a little. "No."
"Oh, yeah. I've been able to write his senatorial speeches just fine, but this requires a different approach now that we're in the final few months of campaign. They think we've been coming on strong? Ha, right. They haven't seen anything."
"And you think writing by committee will help that?" Justin asked her.
"Yeah. You know why?"
"We all know different Sam Seaborns," Will replied wearily. "Okay, fine. But you're the one going to Toby first if this doesn't work."
"Toby likes me."
"He won't if you disappoint Sam."
"Team effort, Will."
"I said okay!" Will slid out of his seat and headed out of the room. "Give me a few minutes. And we won't be able to get everybody--Rich is in Missouri, I think."
"Whoever's here."
Mike stretched her legs and looked over at Justin. "I hope you brought lots of paper."
"Always." He stood up. "Let's go do something completely insane."
"We're not getting drunk in the middle of the day on a weekday, Justin."
"No, of course you wouldn't consider this completely insane," he grumbled, "you came up with it. Crazy woman."
"Thanks. That was almost part of my last name, you know."
He winced. "Mike-"
"I was kidding." She looked up at him now, dark eyes full of mischief. "Come on. This is going to bring the house down when we're done."
"We're writing a speech?" Anne demanded a few minutes later. She moved her hand in a circle to encompass the whole room. "All of us?"
"Yeah." Mike stood and uncapped a pen. "Toby said that government should be a place where people come together, and where no one gets left behind. We have a female VP candidate. We're one of the most diverse campaign staffs ever assembled, as well as one of the youngest. We're going to complete this campaign as one of the biggest scandals in American politics plays itself out. And we have a bigger theme. So... ideas. Now." She poised the pen over the board.
There was a brief, frantic silence as everyone glanced at everyone else. Mike started to turn in annoyance.
"Issues?" Leandra checked.
"Yep."
"Um." She paused. "Education?"
Mike aimed the pen at her. "Education is a biggie. What else?"
"Equality."
"Willingness."
"Belief."
"Hope."
"Health."
"Come on, I know you can do better than this!" she challenged.
"What, you want phrases?" Anne retorted.
"Yes!"
"An imperfect system is no reason to not challenge ourselves!"
"Our capacity may well be limitless!"
"Raise the level of public debate!"
"This isn't a time for people who don't like alternatives just because they can't think of any."
"The impossible!"
"Know the whole truth."
"Now you're talking," Mike encouraged, writing hastily. "How do we get all of those into a speech without saying any of them?"
"Learn..." Marcus trailed off hesitantly.
"Challenge them... us, them, whomever..."
"It's basic psychology."
"Dare the American people?"
"Dare them to do what?"
"Dare them to learn."
"Dare them to vote for someone else."
"My America will be a place where all the people of this country can come together, where we can all challenge ourselves to be proud to call ourselves Americans. It will be a place where we all vow and we all try not to leave anyone behind, where we can truly become a diverse and proud nation. There'll be problems, there'll be setbacks and conflicts and everything else, but I ask you today to make this promise with me: that we shall try. We will try to provide the most basic needs and skills for everyone. We will try to encourage ourselves to all know enough to make the choice, because all too often we make a choice without knowing enough. We will dare each other to make this country a better place to live, for this generation, and for the next, and for the next one after that."
Justin fell abruptly silent, blushing all over.
"And if you don't like that, you should vote for someone else," Will finished.
"As long as you know the truth about them too," Claudia murmured.
Mike looked around. "Okay, we've got a paragraph. What's the rest of it?"
"State-specific," Anne directed, stabbing a finger in the general direction of the board.
"Daring," Lisa said softly. "Mike."
"Yeah?"
"If he okays it, could you-" she stopped and coughed awkwardly.
"Put it in?"
"Yeah."
"Lisa, are you sure?" Will asked mildly, studying her. She nodded.
"The girls said it first, about the truth."
"To make a decision?" She nodded again.
"I'm ready."
"Lisa," Justin called. "Can I kiss you?"
"No!"
"Aww..."
"Okay, just this once." Over Justin's shoulder, Lisa quietly gave Carol a smile and a thumbs-up.
"Because this is what's next. Because the history of mankind is hung on a timeline of exploration, and this is what's next," Sam answered passionately. "It's because we saw fire and thought up the wheel and made the first sailing vessel and trekked across land and ocean. Because it's there, and because we're explorers. That's why."
"Yes?" Toby answered, unimpressed.
"We never know what exploration will let us discover or accomplish until we try."
"I don't think that's what Toby was looking for," Anne suggested.
"I think you need to mock him again," Margaret contributed.
"In the end, it's all a bigger theme. It's founded on the most general and idealistic of platforms: that we can achieve more."
Toby tilted his head back and surveyed Sam. "All right," he said quietly.
Sam smiled in relief. "Thanks. Did I just win my first argument with you?"
"That wasn't an argument," he replied.
"Good job anyway," Al said, nudging her a little.
"Thanks." Sam started playing with her hair again and then stopped. "I'm so nervous. Isn't there anything to do?"
"Not now," Anne told her, surveying the now-silent phones. "If this vote doesn't give anyone the minimum number, we'll be busy again."
Al bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. "I need to stuff envelopes or something."
"Like you usually do?" Al made a horrible face at the speaker, then laughed.
"Oh, yeah. That's all kids can do during a campaign, you know."
"And you're both very good at it," Margaret deadpanned.
"How are the kids doing?" Anne asked Toby after a pause. He lifted a shoulder at her.
"They're taking all of it better than I would."
"Yeah."
"They're taking it better than Sam and Mal's kids."
"Joy and Zach are younger, so that doesn't surprise me a great deal, Toby. Besides, Huck and Claudia have done active work for the campaign, and they might not be in the spotlight as much as the Seaborns."
"That's probably true," Margaret noted in the silence after Toby's raised eyebrow of assent.
"How much longer?" Sam begged.
Anne looked at her watch. "I guess we can go down in five or ten minutes. Any longer and we'll all explode. Don't look at me like that, Toby."
"I wasn't."
"You going out on stage if that becomes, ah, necessary?"
"No. We're okay."
"Yep."
"And you didn't jinx it," Toby added after a judicious pause. "This was settled almost a month ago."
Four Weeks Earlier
"Yeah."
"Just this last thing..."
"Don't forget about the troops."
"Also about San Diego."
"I've got it."
"Okay, you guys, thanks very much," Josh cut in. Lisa and Will backed off.
"I'm good," Sam assured him.
"Yeah, I know." Josh quirked his forehead a little bit and surveyed his friend briefly. "Remember to tell the truth."
"It's the easiest thing to remember," Sam told him, with the gentle smile of years gone by.
"Yeah."
"I'll be fine."
"Yeah." Josh hesitated, then patted Sam on the arm and retreated along with Will and Lisa. Sam stepped up and strode across the stage.
"Senator," a woman accused, "during your term as Senator and your terms in the House, you've promised to help protect us. But very recently this state was the victim of a terrorist attack, and you haven't issued any statement on it at all."
Sam paused, microphone in hand, and looked at her carefully before he answered. He was fifteen minutes into a thirty-minute question and answer session, and several queries had been remarkably on point, making him a little more tired, a little more careful, than he had been during similar sessions earlier in his career.
But then, he wouldn't have been doing his job correctly if they hadn't been on the ball; there was no point in complaining either aloud or to himself about the success of a strategy and platform that was far, far deeper than politics, that spoke to the heart of America's potential. And this question... he'd expected this one more than any other, perhaps even as the first one.
"What happened in San Diego two days ago--rather, what was done to San Diego two days ago--was a terrible thing. I know words, and there aren't any words for that disaster and attack. I can't tell you who did it or why they targeted what they did, because I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever know. This phrase has been spoken so often that it may not mean anything anymore, but my condolences and thoughts and prayers are truly with the victims, their families, and the city of San Diego. They are also with the state of California and indeed the country and the rest of the world, because a terrorist attack is just that. It has struck fear and the terror that we might be next into the hearts and minds of millions of people."
Josh and Mallory stood watching from the side of the stage, his arm wrapped around her: the two people in the world who knew, if any did, the true mark that the attack had left on Sam. "Say you were in one too," Josh urged in a whisper. He glanced up at the back of the room, where Al was watching alertly. Her lips moved; Josh didn't need to watch her closely to know what she was whispering to herself, about how perfection was impossible.
Sam glanced down very briefly, then looked back up to meet the eyes of the woman who had asked the question, whose eyes were just a little too red and haunted. She took a deep breath, but he pressed on. "What I can tell you, and what I promise to all of you now, again, is that I will continue to do everything in my power to keep this state and this country from ever again being the victim of such a terrible attack. I swear to do everything I can to make sure that everyone's children grow up without fear and that, indeed, America is one of the safest countries in the world.
"But it won't ever be enough. It's impossible to absolutely guarantee, and anyone who does has no idea what they're talking about. It's not an excuse; it's not because there are too many of them. It's not enough because perfection is impossible, and I will never, ever take away from you the freedoms you are guaranteed simply by being born in this country to try and falsely guarantee that you will remain forever safe. Life always carries some risks, and neither I nor anyone else has the right to destroy the foundation of this country in an effort to save it. That applies to everything else, too. We are simply... imperfect. What I want to do and what I want all of you to do is to not yield to that imperfection. It's never enough, but it's our duty as American citizens to give our best anyway, because we have that freedom.
"Who was next?"
A young man rose. "Senator, you said you'd do your best, but you also said perfection's impossible. How do any of us know that you'll be able to tell the difference? What if you don't do your best?"
"Then I'd suggest not voting for me."
"Besides that."
Sam smiled. "I guess you'll just have to write me. No, seriously, I'm telling you this because I don't think anyone else will admit to it. It's hard for some people to say that they can't do something, and they make absolute promises that really can't be accomplished without encouraging you to find out the answers or even the questions for yourself. I would rather that you be aware of the issues and conflicts facing all of us and not vote for me because you didn't think I could do it right than be unaware of them and vote for me because you like two sentences I said at a campaign stop that had absolutely nothing to do with my position on anything."
"And so," Will said softly, "he became the first candidate in possibly ever to admit that it can't ever be enough."
"Then he dropped the bombshell about me," Lisa added. She chuckled. "I was so terrified. I still am, I think. So's Dani, really. It's so, so hard to break the habit of fear, especially when you still have people actually trying to make you afraid."
Carol practically twitched in frustration. "You're getting stuff even now?"
"Well, yeah." Lisa looked over at her with a coy smile. "I am one of those sinful lesbian people that'll corrupt everyone, don't you know?"
"It's not funny," Justin seethed.
"Oh, Justin. When you have something like this, the only thing you can really do is laugh at it."
"The Senator took you under his protection," he retorted. "He said, in a very public press conference, and then later in other appearances, that any attack or threat against you was an attack on him. He really means that he's okay with you, Lisa. And people are just ignoring that."
"Some of them aren't. The ones that really can't deal with this kind of thing would keep threatening the two of us even if, quite literally, God came down from on high and said that homosexuality is okay now, so I really don't think there's any hope for them not making threats, okay?"
Margaret turned away and hid a snicker. Anne just grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.
"As long as you don't have sex on the campaign bus," Donna decreed solemnly.
"Aha!" Lisa aimed a finger at her in mock anger, breaking the mood.
"I say that to everybody," Donna replied. "Right?"
"What are you talking about?" Will asked.
"Sex."
"I think they've all forgotten," Amy noted to Donna.
"Yeah," Donna agreed with a smile that might have been smug. "Excuse me; I'm just going to go check and make sure that my husband hasn't torn out all his hair in the last five minutes."
"How long?" Marcus asked as soon as she was gone.
"Ten minutes," Amy answered, checking her watch. "I'm going to get out there; I want to be in the audience for this. The rest of you watching from backstage?"
"Yeah." Carol stood and gave Amy a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for everything, Amy." The other's dark eyes met hers briefly, the gentle humor in them acknowledging something that was meant for far more than just the campaign.
"You're welcome."
In the stressed silence that followed, Sam went to Carol and sat down, leaning against the older woman's side. Carol wrapped one arm automatically around her, feeling Sam tremble with tension, and glanced at her twin. Al stood with her arms folded, one foot swinging forward to tap the floor, then back for another tap, looking at a board full of names. Will turned around and ran a hand through his hair, thinking about calling Zoey to ask for a last-minute strategy that tied in with Galileo before he remembered that he'd really moved on to his own Galileo some years ago. Anne leaned against a wall, one hand over her face.
There was a knock.
"It's time," Rich told them, sticking his head into the room. "Come on." He turned quizzically to Leandra. "They're in there, right?"
"Yeah. I think they even heard you. They're just nervous."
"Yeah, we're coming," Will responded. He looked over at Justin. "You got the speech?"
"Mike and Toby have it," the younger man grimaced.
"I think they're revising it."
"Yeah."
"Okay, come on," Margaret directed, looking nervous herself.
"We're coming!"
The brief journey was filled with nervous, quiet chatter, until Lisa asked, "Did the votes go through?"
"Yeah. I mean, we know... but the chairman's going to go up first."
"Right."
"No, left," Justin tried to joke. Lisa smacked him lightly on the arm. "Okay, that was bad."
"No kidding."
They swarmed into another room, then spread out quietly, facing the candidate, who was flipping through a speech. One of the speeches. After a minute, he took his glasses off and looked around.
"They're all looking at me," he whispered to Josh.
"Yeah."
"Am I supposed to say something?"
"I don't know. Are you?"
"I don't know either. I've never done this before. You're the one who's supposed to know."
"Well, I don't."
"Now you tell me."
"Yeah."
Sam cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I think I'm supposed to say something now, although I'm not quite sure what, since my very knowledgeable manager here isn't as knowledgeable as he said he was. But I'm hoping very much that we'll be continuing this very fun insanity for another few months."
Leandra and Carol stepped to another door. "He's on stage now," the younger warned.
"Right." Sam turned to Mallory. "Is my tie straight?"
"Yes, but your pants are on backwards." At Sam's alarmed look, she laughed and kissed him. "You look just fine."
"Well, now I don't feel fine," Sam grumped, but he looked over at his two children. "Are you two ready?"
Zach nodded, biting his lip. Joy shifted a little and gave one quick nod. "We're going to stick with Huck and Claudia as long as we can, though."
"Okay." He gave them both a hug, then tugged his suit jacket again and looked over at his running mate. "Ready?"
"Always," Andrea tossed off, glancing at Toby. "Are you sure you don't want to come onstage with me, Pokey?"
"I'm definitely sure I don't want to now," he retorted.
"Are you sure, Dad?" Huck insisted. Toby's eyebrows lifted a little.
"Yeah. I'll be back here."
"Okay," Huck sighed.
Justin eyed the paper in the Senator's hand. "Is it ready?"
"Yeah."
"You don't want me to-"
Sam smiled. "It's really ready, Justin."
"All right." He subsided.
"Sam," Carol called. "Thirty."
Blue eyes widened. "Yeah." He unbuttoned and rebuttoned his suit jacket, then tried to snatch up half the papers in front of him, instead causing most of them to fall to the floor. There was a flurry as Mike and Anne tried to pick them up and get everything sorted out, and Josh gently pulled Sam away from the table.
"I think we've got it."
"No, that's the other thing," Mike corrected.
"Let me see that."
"No time."
"Great," Sam sighed and closed his eyes. "Just great. That was perfect."
"It's okay," Mallory whispered.
"Second draft?"
"This is the-"
"And the other page."
"The hell?"
"Come on, people."
"This is definitely it."
"Okay, page two. Where's page one?"
"Right here."
"I thought that was draft four..."
"Nope."
"Okay, we've got it."
"Five," Carol warned the room.
"Okay, that, and..."
"Yep."
"It's too bad I can't see this..."
"Yeah," with a crooked smile.
"Tell me later?"
"Yeah."
"Time," Leandra called. Carol was trying not to laugh.
"We all ready?" Josh checked.
"Yes!" They all straightened, and someone pushed the papers into Sam's hand. Andrea's hand briefly clenched around Toby's arm before she stepped away to stand by Sam and Mallory.
"Do you have the order?" Rich asked Sam.
"Me, Mallory, the kids. Other side of me, Andrea, her kids."
"Right. Good luck, Sam."
"Thanks, Rich."
"Time!" Leandra and Carol hissed together.
"We're coming." Sam tightened his grip on Mallory's hand and stepped up right behind Carol.
"And with two thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two votes, I am proud to call the winner of this Presidential Democratic National Convention: Senator Sam Seaborn of California!"
"How many of those people know about Andi?" Sam muttered to Carol.
"Not so many it'll ruin the surprise," she answered dryly. "Get up there."
Josh shoved his best friend lightly. "Nothing you can do," he said simply.
"Yeah." Sam smiled and strode up to the stage. Andrea, Mallory, and the children stopped just out of sight.
"Here it goes," Donna whispered in Josh's ear. He jumped.
"I didn't even know you were there."
"I'm sneaky like that."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you. I thank you all." Sam waved a little, and the applause rose again. "Thank you. And I thank Governor Narti for a race well run, a race that has been astoundingly respectful from, I think, both our sides. I believe we've set an example for future elections; or at least, I hope we have." The cheers died down a little. "I've been asked many times about my running mate, and since that person has played such an instrumental role in my campaign and all my time in Washington, it would be... unfair of me not to have them up here with me in this moment." He couldn't help it; he paused and took a dramatic breath. Never mind his position on abortion or gay rights or national security, this was a pivotal moment in his campaign. Naming a female vice presidential candidate had sunk other candidates before this, and might well again.
He was probably supposed to say something else, but what came out as a clear shout into the microphone carried its power in simplicity: "Senator Andrea Wyatt of Maryland!"
Surprise and astonishment are odd sounds in such a crowd. The Maryland delegation immediately exploded with joyful shouting as Andrea came on the stage to stand on Sam's right, as the Illinois delegation sat in utter silence. Huck and Claudia came to stand next to her, both squeezing her hand briefly before stepping back. As the disorganized shouts and cheers grew in other delegations, Mallory walked onto the stage, Zach's hand in hers, and took Sam's hand. Sam lifted her hand and kissed it, smiling at her with utterly bright blue eyes, and turned back to the crowd, taking Andrea's hand.
"Seaborn/Wyatt for America!" a woman's voice called. Sam glanced down at the front rows, and Amy winked at him. He could see some volunteers and staffers running through the crowd, passing out signs they'd kept in Toby's closet for the last two months. Had he turned, he would have seen Toby watching the stage, watching Andrea, with that small smile that, for him, conveyed a greater joy than any laugh.
More delegations were starting to echo Amy's rallying cry, but this next step of pandemonium was abruptly overturned as every woman in the California and Maryland delegations stood up, fingers to lips, admonishing the rest to be quiet, and started applauding. Amy stood and turned around, mouth open. Andrea tightened her grip on Sam, then thrust their intertwined hands into the air in a triumphant gesture, even as her eyes glimmered in astonishment.
"Oh," Mal murmured. "Sam."
"Yeah," he whispered back, raising their hands and trying to kiss her and keep his other hand in the air all at the same time. Applause was starting to ripple through more and more delegations, overtaking the normal shouting and cheering. The women from New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts were all standing, and the effect was moving across the mass of people.
"I'm glad you're the one delivering a speech," Andi whispered to Sam. He turned and smiled at her, then kissed her softly on one cheek.
"New policy this year," he whispered back. "VP candidates deliver the acceptance speech."
Andrea laughed. "I'm going to kick your ass, Samuel." The glimmer in her eyes and nervous quiver in her voice was gone, though.
"That's my job," Mallory corrected from the other side of Sam.
"Please tell me this mike is off," Sam muttered.
"It's off."
"Thank you," he called after a few minutes. "Thank you!"
"You want the mike on now," Claudia murmured. He shot her a look. She just turned a little and nodded once. "Remote," she added.
"Ah." Sam waited a moment more. "Thank you!" he called again, simultaneously working to revise the start of his speech, and considering whether it really did need to be revised. They had never, in the most extremely optimistic of possibilities, considered that every woman in the room would wind up on her feet.
'I trust you to run for anything and believe in the right things.'
'Sometimes you have to know the whole truth about something...'
'You have to let me protect you, and you have to let me protect the President!'
'You have to let us protect you, sir!'
'Sixty-five percent of those polled...'
Sam closed his eyes. He would not, he would not, weep while accepting his party's nomination for President.
He probably would later, though. One more step from this, just a few more months, and that argument would fade to stillness. 'I'm telling you it's not for nothing, Sam, not by a long shot!'
The words were right in front of him. Toby's words with Justin's with Mike's with CJ's and everybody else's, from the team they had formed anew, just as Leo and Jed had reminded him that it was everyone's strategy.
Words... the words he wanted everyone to be able to understand completely.
"The very core of my campaign has been the idea that we're better for having asked a question, for having tried to answer someone else's question. The cornerstone of that is the extraordinary and yet basic premise that it's possible to have a country where we all try to do those two things; a place where no one gets left behind; there's simply no need for it." He paused and sighed, very quietly, so that hardly anyone heard him, imagining Toby rolling his eyes and Justin clutching his hair and Mike rolling her eyes. Just at the point where he imagined Justin would be muttering about tearing his own hair out, he spoke again, voice rich with his own poet's soul and Justin's upwelling of prose.
"My America will be a place where all the people of this country can come together, where we can all challenge each other to be proud to call ourselves Americans. It will be a place where we all vow and we all try not to leave anyone behind, where we can truly become a diverse and proud nation. There'll be problems, there'll be setbacks and conflicts and everything else, but I ask you today to make this promise with me: that we shall try. We will try to provide the most basic needs and skills for everyone. We will try to encourage ourselves to all know enough to make the choice, because all too often we make a choice without knowing enough. We will dare each other to make this country a better place to live, for this generation, and for the next, and for the next one after that." Sam paused again for a breath, and squeezed Mallory and Andrea's hands.
"It won't ever be enough, but that's no reason not to try, and try harder. I call on all of you to believe in this, and to make this effort with me, so that no one is left behind. I am Samuel Norman Seaborn of California, and I accept your nomination for President of the United States."
